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The primary purpose of this book is to share leadership lessons that I have learned from playing online games and to show how these lessons might apply to the real world.

There are a variety of other reasons for offering these insights and observations:

To elaborate on some of the similarities and differences between leadership in online games and the real world.

To give some insight into that with which future generations of leaders will need to become familiar and comfortable, as technologies continually trend towards greater collaboration over the internet.

To dispel the myth that games are a complete waste of time.

To give some perspective on a world into which many have never ventured.

To influence today’s and tomorrow’s leaders.

My main goal is simply to communicate leadership lessons that I have learned from online gaming.

-Jeon Rezvani, 7/15/08

About the Author

Jeon Rezvani graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1993 with a B.S. in Mathematics & Computer Science. He currently is a Director of Enterprise Architecture/Information Security & Compliance for Con-way, Inc. (a $4.7 billion freight transportation and logistics services company, voted #1 on the 2007 InformationWeek 500, and named FORTUNE magazine's "Most Admired Company" in Transportation and Logistics for 2007; also, voted as one of Silicon Valley's five "Most Admired Companies" in 2008).

At 38, Jeon is an enthusiastic 30-year computer-gaming veteran who has served and led people in online games for more than 25 years, all the while developing a unique style of leadership that he applies to the real world. He has been in some of the most dominant guilds in massively multiplayer online role-playing games, including "Fires of Heaven" in EverQuest, "Pain" in Vanguard, and "JINX" in World of Warcraft. His passion for both online gaming and great leadership resulted in this book.

About the Book

This timely work shares valuable leadership lessons from the parallel universes of online games -- lessons that can impact the real world in meaningful ways. In addition, this book: challenges some classically held leadership tenets; strives to influence today's and tomorrow's leaders; demystifies the art of leadership in a fresh new way. It is vitually important for today's leaders to prepare for the world of tomorrow. Is is the author's hope that this book will assist them in their preparation.

Some fascinating statistics about online gaming: Approximately 1 in every 660 people on Earth (i.e., over 10 million subscriptions) plays World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). South Korea has a law enforcement unit dedicated to investigating crimes that occur in online games. Almost 1,000,000 people in China are employed full-time as "gold farmers," collecting virtual gold and resources in online games and virtual worlds and selling them to Westerners. And that is just the tip of the iceberg...